AsianScientist (Jul. 16, 2015) – Bayer HealthCare and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) plan to launch at least three joint projects in oncology, cardiology and ophthalmology over the next five years. The projects will be jointly funded by Bayer HealthCare and grant funding agencies in Singapore, and the estimated total investment is potentially up to S$30 million (~US$22 million).
The cooperation broadens existing partnerships with pre-clinical and clinical researchers from partner institutions, such as the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Center and National University Health System (NUHS).
“Singapore is an important research site for Bayer in Asia. By working with our partners, we can gain first-hand insights from researchers on diseases prevalent in Singapore and Asia and gather a real-life perspective into their clinical management practice. We will set up a platform to discuss potential new collaborations, from target discovery projects to early clinical studies,” said Professor Andreas Busch, head of Bayer HealthCare Global Drug Discovery and member of the executive committee of Bayer HealthCare.
“EDB is committed to further strengthen the ecosystem and establish Singapore as the choice location for companies to carry out research and clinical activities to meet the growing healthcare needs in the region,” said Mr. Kevin Lai, executive director for Biomedical Sciences and Consumer Businesses, Singapore EDB.
To date, Bayer HealthCare has invested more than S$20 million (~US$14.6 million) in joint research with its Singapore partners. The network of partners will also benefit researchers across the various institutions to collaborate and foster translational research that can help to achieve results and deliver innovative therapeutics to patients more efficiently.
One of the new projects initiated is an important cardiology research initiative, conducted in collaboration with NUHS. The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) is one of the centres involved in the study.
The project will leverage the Asian Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure multinational study that monitors 8,000 heart failure patients in 11 Asian regions (China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand), and is the first to be done in Asia Pacific. The analyses from this study will provide valuable data for identification of novel stratification markers among Asian patients, as well as potential new targets for the development of new treatment approaches.
“The Asian-HF study is an exciting step towards developing novel treatments that Asian patients may better respond to. By working together with Bayer, we hope to accelerate the translation of the findings from this study into new treatment for patients,” said Associate Professor Lam, Principal Investigator of ASIAN-HF.
Since 2007, Bayer HealthCare has increased its clinical trials conducted in Singapore by three-fold, from six to 20, in 2014. Today, four out of seven of its Phase I cancer studies in Asia Pacific are run in Singapore.
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Source: EDB Singapore.
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